'The Military Commissions Act became law in 'the land of the free' in 2006. The Act strips detainees of protections provided by the Geneva Conventions. The Act declares that no person 'subject to trial by military commission under this chapter may invoke the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights.' The Act also denies detainees the protections of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights: 'No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of' a detainee. Some language in the Act refers to detainees as 'aliens', but, ominously, other language does not limit the Act’s applicability to 'aliens.' - Paul Craig Roberts
These folks are fast becoming my favorite 2ndary source.
Paul Craig Roberts is almost the paradigm of the rugged, rich Republican with-a-heart-of-gold, served in Raygun's regime as Asst. Treas. Sec.
Their top post then follows:
(From Harper's)
President Bush sees himself as a divine messenger of freedom and liberty. On his watch, a great and ancient people have risen up to shake off the chains of oppression. They look to America and its leader for help and encouragement. And what do they find? He ignores them. He is too busy with his plans for wars–past and coming. The democratic moment is on the world stage now. It is played out in Burma. And Bush and his crew turn a blind eye on it.
It’s a day to remember the challenge of the tyrant. And a day to remember the words of W.H. Auden:Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.
–W.H. Auden, Epitaph on a Tyrant (1939) in: Collected Poems p. 183.
It seems to be a blogging collective. There are a lot of vibrant voices.
On thing we can learn from the anti-regime demonstrations in Myanmar/Burma is that, whatever ELSE it may be, pacifism is not bloodless. I've always thought the thing is not to be the only target in the street. That's why all the fish turn together.
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